Suffolk Council To Hear Church's Plan For School

SUFFOLK — Proponents and opponents of an expanded school at the First Baptist Church on Main Street will have their say in front of the City Council Wednesday night.

After a one-month delay, church leaders have ready a traffic study which indicates that with an increase in enrollment of 122 students in kindergarten through grade 8 - a total of 362 students - traffic will be increased by 10 percent.

City Public Works Director Thomas G. Hines said he reviewed the study, and finds no problems with it.

Traffic will increase in the area if the school is enlarged, but not substantially so to disrupt current traffic patterns and the neighborhood around the school.

Already at the church, at 237 N. Main St., is a day-care center and a school running to grade 2.

Church officials, at a hearing before the Planning Commission, said the school will be increased one grade a year as the upper-level students progress.

The Planning Commission, at its May meeting, denied the rezoning request 12-1 after neighbors argued that the school would add an increased traffic burden on residential streets.

When the matter came before the City Council last month, council postponed the hearing as no traffic-impact study had been conducted.

The study, conducted by Norfolk-based consultants Baldwin and Gregg, concluded the increase "does not create a negative impact on the street systems."

As with the hearing before the Planning Commission and last month's scheduled council hearing, a large attendance in opposition is expected.

In addition to the First Baptist Church rezoning request, the City Council is ex pected to hold a public hearing on its proposed ordinance to fund an engineering study for a water line to feed Northern Suffolk.

The water line is one of the ways the Council believes Suffolk can become self-sufficient for its water needs.

The cost of the study, $200,000, will come from unappropriated funds from the Public Utilities Fund.